How Big Pharma Controls Medicine

The large pharmaceutical companies–Big Pharma–control medicine in the U.S. And they stand between us and good medical care.

Let’s be blunt about it. Big Pharma is all about money. First, last and always, it’s about the money. They dress it up with talk about the frontiers of science, conquering disease, improving life, etc., but it’s not about any of these things. It’s about money.

Pharmaceutical companies rake in big, big bucks. And they lavish it around to buy the assurance that a large stream of big bucks will continue to flow through the pipeline.

First, Big Pharma, with help from politicians, has totally corrupted the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA would rather serve the drug companies than perform their duty of protecting the public. And too many meetings take place out of public sight.

Second, Big Pharma controls medical schools with endowments, plush jobs for go-along administrators, etc. Med schools teach what their big contributors want taught.

For instance, med schools teach that Armour thyroid, the natural, desiccated thyroid medication that has proved its worth for more than 150 years is unreliable, and any doctor who prescribes it is obviously out of touch with science. This nonsense turns truth on its head, but it’s taught as gospel.

And med school professors continue on to laud Synthroid as the thyroid medication of choice. Now that facts are that Synthroid is unreliable, has no science to back it up and no record of success. But it sure brings in a ton of money.

Med students, bless their hearts, think they’re being taught the truth. And it takes some serious intervention to dislodge that misinformation.

One doctor, David Brownstein, MD, did everything med school taught him to do as he treated his dying father. And his father got worse. In desperation, Dr. Brownstein looked beyond what he had been taught–and found solutions in alternative treatments. His father went on to live for many more happy years. Most doctors, though, don’t have such a strong motivation, so they continue as true believers.

And med schools don’t end the effort. Maintaining a medical license requires continuing education, so Big Pharma provides it–in exotic, luxurious locations. Taught by prestigious names in the medical field–paid by drug company sponsors, of course–who repeat the indoctrination of med school. All while cosseting receptive doctors–and at no cost. No tacky university lecture halls for them, thank you very much.

And still the beat goes on! Armies of sales reps descend on doctors’ offices daily. They use their constant presence to cement the med school mantra: “Big Pharma is your friend.”

They deliver lunch for the doctor, at no cost, of course. Leave behind pens, pencils, prescription pads, laptop computers, office software systems, sample drugs and on and on. Anything to keep the gravy train going.

Here’s where it all comes down. A doctor committed to Big Pharma cannot be simultaneously committed to you. Look for signs of influence. Some are obvious. A closed-circuit TV in a doctor’s office pretty much shouts that your well-being won’t take first place.

One push for Big Pharma nowadays is stacking State Medical Boards with their enforcers so doctors have no choice but to do Big Pharma’s bidding. At least, if they want to keep their medical license, they don’t.

Another is working with the World Health Organization to make it illegal–around the world–to buy natural remedies such as vitamins, minerals, etc. With alternative medicine growing by leaps and bounds as people flee from standard medical care, drug companies want the WHO to destroy the threat.

We are in a war. Not of our choosing, to be sure, but a war none-the-less.

Don’t lose by default. We need health tea parties. On-line activity. Letters to politicians. Involvement in the various community organizations. In sum, since it seems to be the only way to create change nowadays, we need to make noise. And choose you doctors carefully.

The life you save may be your own.